Woodstock’s Deante Robinson looks for running room Friday at Roswell. The Wolverines’ hopes for fighting their way back in the Region 5AAAAAA standings were dealt another blow with their third region loss.
Special photo by Kent McCorkle

ROSWELL — Jerrail McMickens and the rest of Woodstock’s special teams unit were primed to steal a key region win for the Wolverines on Friday until Roswell running backs Mechane Slade and Sheldon Evans began to find holes.

The Hornets got their tandem of workhorse tailbacks in a rhythm just in time to secure a 22-19 homecoming victory Friday night and drop Woodstock to 1-3 in Region 5AAAAAA and 2-5 overall.

Slade finished with 89 yards on 19 carries, while Evans racked up 66 yards on his 20 touches.

“They’re two very talented backs, and the smartest thing I can do is just give the ball to them,” Roswell coach John Ford said.

Roswell (4-3, 2-2) took control for good in the third quarter with a 15-play, 80 yard drive that ate over 6 minutes of clock and ended with Slade’s 1-yard plunge into the end zone. After Woodstock’s ensuing drive was cut short by an interception, Hornets quarterback James Whitaker found wideout Kendall Smith for a 32-yard touchdown strike to extend the lead to 10 midway through the fourth quarter.

An 80-yard interception return by Woodstock senior defensive back Chase Mowery cut the deficit to three with just under 3 minutes left. But receiver Colin McCaulley secured the onside kick for the Hornets, and Roswell turned to Slade to melt the clock.

The junior tailback came through with a handful of tough runs, and with Woodstock quarterback Justin Agner nursing a shoulder injury after taking a big hit in the fourth quarter, backup Alex Motsinger couldn’t get anything going in Woodstock’s final possession.

“The team that controls the line of scrimmage more than likely is going to come out on top,” Woodstock coach Brent Budde said. “I think they controlled the line of scrimmage and got to the second level on our linebackers a little bit.”

Woodstock brought a 10-8 lead into halftime, but their lead could have been larger had they capitalized on the first of McMickens’ two punt blocks. McMickens got his hands on three punts in all, sending one through the end zone for a safety, and Mowery contributed a blocked extra point.

But after Roswell worked the game clock down to 1:11, punter Daniel Diroberto was able to get off a 25-yard punt that pinned Motsinger and the stalled Wolverines’ offense in their own end.

“Some guys have it, you know?” Budde said of McMickens. “They know how to block punts, and Jerrail’s one of those kids. That’s probably about six, maybe seven, on the year for him.”

Budde said the Wolverines would likely enter next week’s game against archrival Etowah without Agner, who found receiver Josh Loud behind the secondary in the first quarter for a 27-yard touchdown pass to open the scoring.

Budde is 16-22 overall as the head coach at Woodstock and has had a different offense every year. I think its time to make a change. Parents have been pissed for years and everyone is losing faith and confidence in him. You can even tell with the way the boys play on the field. The team just seems very disorganized from the top down. Its a shame

Late in the second half, down 2 scores and we run 3 times and punt. Since following Woodstock football I've seen a whole lot of bad coaching. This was the first game I have ever seen a coach quit on the team. The coach just stopped trying to win with a minute to go in the first half. What a great example for the players! We are always poorly prepared, and we never make adjustments. The team gets worse every year and worse as the season goes on. We can't execute on offense and we can't tackle. We have play makers and we can't get them the ball. That is pure coaching. These kids play the way they practice. This team will never win with this coach. He inspires teams to quit on him year after year and he is still here. This coach is the only person I have ever seen do a job every day and get worse every day. Good coaches will admit they got outcoached and learn from it, but this guy just blames the kids and tells them they got outplayed. It is never his fault. He should be ashamed. Clearly the Principal does not care. So if we want our kids to play football I guess we need to move to a different school district. These kids are being taught to quit!

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